Once upon a time, the pizza oven was a strictly professional piece of kit, found only in winding Neapolitan backstreets and noisy New York trattorias. Vast, brick-lined and spewing smoke, they required space, an endless supply of wood and a lifetime’s expertise in the pizza-making art.

Now, though, they’re a full-blown British back garden phenomenon, with sales booming over the past year. Despite our damp, cool weather and national predilection for cheap takeaway pizzas that are indistinguishable from their steam-softened cardboard boxes, our nation of shopkeepers – or should that be shop-goers – is slowly morphing into the land of alfresco pizzaioli. Who knew?

In fact, the outdoor pizza oven has become the essential accessory for any self-respecting gourmand. You can make your own, if you’re handy with bricks and clay, but for the rest of us, there are dozens of gleaming new models available, from cheap and cheerful to the altogether more grown-up.

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The outdoor pizza oven has become the essential accessory for any self-respecting gourmand. You can make your own, if you’re handy with bricks and clay, but for the rest of us, there are dozens of gleaming new models available, from cheap and cheerful to the altogether more grown-up

But, I hear you ask, what’s wrong with the supermarket pizza anyway?

In a word, everything. The difference between a true Neapolitan pizza (all blistered, chewy crust, a thin slick of tart tomato sauce topped with small, bubbling pools of molten mozzarella) and its mass-market equivalent is immense – crown jewels as opposed to Barbie’s tiara. The former is one of the greatest things that could ever pass your lips; the latter, barely edible depression.

So the fact that the home cook can whip up a decent pizza, with the minimum of effort, is good news for us all.

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The key to all these pizza ovens is heat, and lots of it. A good one will reach an optimum working temperature of about 450C – around twice as hot as a domestic kitchen oven. Searing stones cook the base, while the fierce heat crisps the top and melts the mozzarella into gooey loveliness.

It should take no longer than two or three minutes to transform soft, pasty dough into burnished, billowing brilliance. You also get that wonderful characteristic scent of woodsmoke. One of my indoor favourites is the £385 Chadwick pizza oven, a piece of kitchen art that works on top of a gas cooker. The results are sublime. But spring has sprung, and the air is thick with the siren call of alfresco eating.

I put five models to the test to find out whether they create pizza perfection… or merely sub-supermarket stodge.

THE HEAT IS ON...IT'S TOM'S OVEN TEST

1. ALFA PIZZA 5 MINUTO

Costs a fortune so only for the deep-pocketed pizza freak, but this baby’s good. Perfect pizzas, as good as you’d find in the best British pizza parlours. And the most fantastic char. There’s a temperature gauge, lots of room and results are tip-top. The pizza oven of champions.

COST: £1,625

2. UUNI 2S

Small, slick and sexy, but looks aren’t everything. This one uses own-brand fuel pellets, so you can’t just whack in a few logs. After a recommended ten minutes heating-up time, black smoke poured from the chimney and the pizza wasn’t cooked. Disappointing.

COST: £199

3. LA HACIENDA MEXICAN CLAY OVEN

It might be cheap, but unless you’re cooking lunch for an army of munchkins, you’re best giving this one a miss. There’s hardly room to swing an ant in here. Plus I couldn’t get a decently searing heat. So as an outdoor heater, it’s grand. But for great pizzas? Nope.

COST: £99.99

4. LA HACIENDA LORENZO

More affordable, although it takes time and effort to bring it up to heat. Even with two hours preparation, it was hard to get it to a suitable temperature. But it looks handsome, has a temperature gauge, and enough room for a decent-sized pizza. Just about portable too.

COST: £139.99

5. BAKERSTONE BOX

More an insert for gas barbecues. And as we all know, gas barbecues are the devil’s work. Still, it’s simple, has an easy-to-read temperature gauge and gives decent results. This is one for those who want instant pizzas. Although I missed the smoky allure of the wood burning models. But decent, well priced and effective.

COST: £99

TOP TIPS FOR PIZZA PERFECTION

The dough is all-important. Sourdough is great, but for a really simple (but effective) pizza dough, I mix 500g 00-grade flour with 325ml of lukewarm water, and a 7g sachet of yeast. Mix in a food-processor with the dough hook (or knead, if you’re that way inclined). Then put the dough into a bowl in a warm place, cover with a wet cloth and leave to rise for an hour. Take out, separate into 160g balls, and let it rise again for another hour.

All that swirling of the dough you see in proper pizza places is no mere trick, rather the best way to stretch the dough. But it’s blinking hard to master. I tend to roll it out as thin as I can, then attempt a little light twirling. But the thinner the dough, the better.

The art of transferring pizza from counter top to paddle to stove is a complex one. Seriously. The dough is sticky, and you don’t want it sticking to the paddle. A little dusting of flour or polenta works wonders. And once you’ve topped the dough, don’t hang about. The longer it sits, the more difficult it becomes to move in one piece.

Don’t overload your pizza. This isn’t some ghastly all-you-can-eat pizza chain. Add a thin layer of tomato sauce (I use passata) but leave a small gap between sauce and edge. Then a sprinkling of mozzarella (buffalo may taste good, but it sweats too much liquid when being cooked and can make the pizza soggy). And a couple of basil leaves. That’s the classic margherita. Add whatever else you desire, but use toppings sparingly. And remember, pineapple will never have a place on any self-respecting pizza.

Cook for about two minutes, then use the paddle to take out, turn around and put in for about a minute more. Times will vary and once you get to know your oven, you’ll find out what suits best. Eat immediately. With your hands. Not knives and forks.